The Village of Great Writing

Pt 1

The sun was beating down outside, but Chris was not concerned. He sat relaxed, cooled by the air-conditioning of his office.

He had been working tirelessly for weeks, piecing together a complicated bid for a large construction Project due to start in March. However, March was two weeks away. Bored, and having read the online British tabloids, he perused the Internet.

He had called Malaysia home for over three years now, and prior to the past few days, had rarely had a moment to himself. "I'll make hay while the sun shines" he justified to himself. "Spend a bit of time having some crack".

The crack he had in mind was not that commonly used by homeless imbeciles around the World. The crack he enjoyed was crack of the Irish variety: Good honest fun!

Aimlessly he wondered the never-ending streets of cyber-space, calling in at various virtual coffee shops and amusement arcades in seek of ‘the crack'. After what seemed like hours of endless hiking, Chris stumbled upon a quaint little village called ‘Great Writing'. Initial impressions were that this slow-paced place was one solely occupied by tourists. Sure, there was much to see in this virtual place, but having been in Malaysia so long, and in Hong Kong for eight years prior to here, the last thing he wanted was more bloody tourists!

Delving deeper into the attractive little cyber-hamlet, he found that hidden away behind the tourism and the copious forums, there actually existed a thriving little community. Knowing he had time on his hands, Chris decided to take the plunge and apply for citizenship at the local community hall, and become a fully-fledged member of the Great Writing Community. Within minutes he was accepted. He was astounded how quickly, once he received his virtual passport stamp, many gates unlocked themselves before his very eyes. Gates that not five minutes previous he had tried, but found locked.

"This truly is a magical place" he smiled to himself; "A sort of cross between the inside of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, and the The Land Of Oz, but without little goblins and munchkins running around everywhere getting on your tits".

And it was magical. The thriving community behind the locked gates held some of Cyber space's most intellectual people. OK, there was the occasional numb-nut, as with all communities, but here Chris felt at home. He approached the small drinking well amid the Village Green, lowered then retrieved the bucket, lifted it to his lips, and drank from the well of Literary Know-How.

 "Now", he thought, "now I can have some crack!"